BREAKING NEWS, Judiciary
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A federal high court in Ibadan, Oyo State, will tomorrow begin the trial of six senior officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria and 16 commercial bank senior staff members for their alleged involvement in N8 Billion scam
SIX top officials of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and 16 workers of commercial banks in the country have been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for alleged involvement in a N8 billion scam.
The suspects who have been picked up by operatives of the EFCC were allegedly stole and put into circulation defaced and mutilated Nigerian currency notes to the tune of N8 billion meant for destruction.
The trial of the suspects, who are already in the EFCC custody, would begin at the Federal High Court, Ibadan, on Tuesday, June 2, and is expected to run until June 4.
A statement signed by WilsonUwujaren, head of media of the EFCC, gave the names of the suspects as: Patience Okoro Eye (Abuja), Afolabi Olufemi (Lagos), Kolawole Babalola (Ibadan), Olaniran Muniru Adeola (Ibadan), Fatai Yusuf, Adekunle (head, security, CBN, Ibadan) and Ilori Adekunle Sunday (Akure).
The 16 commercial bank officials, who allegedly colluded with the CBN officials to commit the fraud, were from Zenith Bank, FCMB, Wema Bank, Access Bank, First Bank, Skye Bank, Ecobank and Sterling Bank. The suspects allegedly helped themselves with the mutilated N8 billion cash, while they burnt old newspapers in place of the defaced Naira notes, thereby making a mockery of the CBN rule relating to such money.
However, trouble started when one of the bank officials petitioned the EFCC, alleging on November 3, 2014 that more than N6,575,549, 370 was cornered and discreetly recycled by some top executives of the CBN at the Ibadan branch.
The suspects were members of the Briquetting Panel, which handles the destruction of defaced notes from commercial banks.
In banking parlance, Briquetting is disintegration and destruction of counted and audited dirty notes. By this practice, depositor banks usually take mutilated notes to the CBN in exchange for fresh notes equivalent of the amount deposited.
— Jun 1, 2015 @ 11:05 GMT
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